A Million Little Pieces

Intense, unpredictable, and instantly engaging, this is a story of drug and alcohol abuse and rehabilitation as it has never been told before. Recounted in visceral, kinetic prose, and crafted with a forthrightness that rejects self-pity, it brings readers face-to-face with a provocative understanding of the nature of addiction and the meaning of recovery.

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From Library Staff

Intense, unpredictable, and instantly engaging, this is a story of drug and alcohol abuse and rehabilitation as it has never been told before. Recounted in visceral, kinetic prose, and crafted with a forthrightness that rejects self-pity, it brings readers face-to-face with a provocative understa... Read More »

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As others have said, fiction or nonfiction, this is a good book. It is a great way to better understand the cycle of being an addict and why most addicts relapse. Regardless of whether or not these things happened to Frey, these things do happen to addicts. This is the reality of being an addict. People find plot holes and criticize Frey for "lying" because they are uncomfortable with this reality. Those who think it's poorly written and appears unedited have never taken a literature class before. The style of the writing is symbolic and is completely lost on many readers. Please give this book an objective read and decide for yourself.

Love it or hate it, the polarity of opinions on James Frey's book are cleanly divided. I fall into the love camp and this was actually my second time reading this book. The first time was many years ago, but I remembered really enjoying the book so I gave it a second whirl and liked it just as much this time. Pick it up and read the first 50 pages to decide which camp you're in. I found it an immensely satisfying read, whether fiction or non.

This whole Oprah hullabaloo was blown way out of proportion, wouldn't you agree? Show me any auto-biography/memoir, and I'll show you a polished...what's the phrase? Come on...just read it for the story. Who care if it was real? This whole ordeal, though, did teach me one thing. Never mess with the queen of daytime.

Regardless of whether or not this story is "true" the impact of the writing style and the no holds barred descriptions of out-of-control addiction are worth experiencing -- especially when taking the reader into his or hers own shadows. Anyone can benefit by taking on the author's demands on himself to be held fully accountable for the person he is and the person he may become. Owning your mistakes, forgiving yourself and others, learning to let go while holding on, are keys to being able to truly, and peacefully, look yourself in the eyes.

Before I go into my review, I'll warn you that I did not finish this book. I read it up to page 32, and I honestly don't know if I should even be rating this book right now. But, you know what? The writing itself is worth one star.

The sentence structure is very annoying, and the constant word repetition is thrown at you. Like, THROWN at you. I could not stand it.

The beginning is super confusing and not necessarily because it's interesting. For example, the short quotes and "dialogue" make it extremely redundant, boring, and meaningless. I felt like I was actually wasting my time.

The fact that most of this story was made up is just a whole other problem. I didn't even know about this while reading, and now that I've learned about this, I feel truly disappointed that an author would label a fictitious story as his memoir.

This review might have just been from a moody phase in my life, but I just don't have the patience to complete it. Also, I don't want to be reading about vomiting, pills, and addiction for, like, 2 hours. So, just don't trust me.

While I remember the poop-show that went down after it turned out that James Frey's best-selling addiction and recovery memoir was partially fabricated, I had little to no interest in actually reading it. It seemed less a big deal that he'd embellished here and there than that he'd pissed off Oprah, the most powerful woman in television. Rarely did I actually hear anyone discuss the merits of the book, although there's a hilariously inaccurate quote from New York Press "Can Frey be the greatest writer of his generation? Maybe?" He wasn't even the greatest writer of that week in 2006 when everyone knew who he was. I kinda hate memoirs about addiction, so this book was not for me. Aside from that, it's terribly written and, at over 400 pages, way too long. His lack of of quotation marks and indented paragraphs is a stylistic tic that just draws attention to how little there is here. Frey continued to write, but has also founded a company focused on young adult fiction that has been trying to churn out the next "Twilight." Anyway, this book is so terrible that you probably should read it as a palette cleanser. This edition has a tiny disclaimer that reads "This book is a combination of facts about James Frey's life and certain embellishments."

To be fair, I didn't read the whole book, but that was because I disliked the writing so intensely. It seemed completely unedited. The writer does something I really hate: randomly capitalize words. There are many memoirs of addiction & recovery out there; I moved onto stuff that offers both style and substance.

While this is a good story that I could see being turned into a miniseries, it is very choppy to read. There are no quotation marks (therefore conversations and speakers are difficult to identify from thoughts and actions) and the majority of the book is very repetitive-- especially for a 400+ page book.

However, there are some great morals and philosophies in this book. A controversial memoir, Frey displays his growth as a person/ character over the course of a few weeks, and that change is remarkable. Additionally, the people he may or may not have actually met along the way, especially Leonard and Lilly, are very lovable people.

Just be aware that this is the story of addiction, so it ends bittersweet.

Quotes

"The Young Man came to the Old Man seeking counsel.
I broke something, Old Man.
How badly is it broken?
It's in a million little pieces.
I'm afraid I can't help you.
Why?
There's nothing you can do.
Why?
It can't be fixed.
Why?
It's broken beyond repair. It's in a million little pieces."
(This intro couldn't be any more cliché lol)